Some Little-Known-Facts about
Canada

Canada's name comes from the Huron-Iroquois word
Kanata, and means "village" or "settlement".

In 1991, 533,000 Canadians were either
status or non-status Indians, and over one million claimed to
be of native descent. Of these, 783 980 were from the numerous
North American tribes, 212 650 were Metis (of French and Native
descent) and 49, 255 were Inuit.

Canadians can speak over 100 of the world's
estimated 5,000 living languages. Four million Canadians
reported a mother tongue other than English or French in
1991.

Canada is the world's second largest country in the world
(next to Russia) but houses only 27million people - making
it rank only 28th in population.

Canada is the largest country in the
Western hemisphere. How large? 9,910,610 square kilometres, and
stretching 5,500km from Pacific to Atlantic. That's how
large!

Nearly 800,000 sq.kilometers of Canada's
land is covered by bodies of fresh water such as lakes and
rivers, making Canada the largest source of fresh water in the
world. Also, the coastline extends approximately 244,000
km.

Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy (we
recognise the Queen of England in our Constitution, however,
she does play a role in government) and a federal state with a
democratic Parliament. The Parliament of Canada, in the
nation's capital, Ottawa, consists of the House of Commons,
whose members are elected, and the Senate, whose members are
appointed. On average, members of Parliament are elected every
four years. Our current Prime Minister is Jean
Chretien.

Sports

The most popular sports in Canada include
swimming, ice hockey, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing,
baseball, tennis, basketball and golf. Ice hockey, Canadian
football and baseball are the favourite spectator sports.*

BASKETBALL- now a U.S. favourite -
was invented by a Canadian! James A. Naismith was born in
Almonte, Ontario in November 1871. He studied at McGill
University in Montreal,Quebec before becoming an instructor at
the International YMCA Training School in Massachusetts, USA.
It was there that he came up with the idea for basketball, and
the first game was played in 1891. There are currently two
Canadian NBA teams - the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver
Grizzlies. The United States may dominate the game, but the
brains behind remain Canadian!

What Else?

Canada has more automobiles per person than
any other country with at least one automobile for every two
Canadians.

Canada is often thought of as the land of
ice and snow. While winter temperatures do tend to verge on the
unbearable side, summer temperatures can often reach 35 degrees
Celsius- making summer equally unbearable. It's a good thing we
have fall and spring to prepare us!